
Overview
The daring experimenter Dr. John C. Lilly dedicated his life to radical self-investigation and unlocking the mysteries of consciousness and communication. “My body is my laboratory” was the motto, and his research on the language of dolphins and whales – as well as psychedelics and sensory deprivation – assured his own cult status in 20th-century pop culture as the basis for Ken Russel’s Altered States and Mike Nichols’s The Day of the Dolphin. Directors Michael Almareyda and Courtney Stephens, along with narrator Chloë Sevigny, explore the life of a determined scientist and his experiments into the psychonautical unknown.
Production
The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Production Grant
Cast & Characters

Chloë Sevigny
Narrator (voice)

Alejandro Jodorowsky
Self

Allen Ginsberg
Self (archive footage)

Timothy Leary
Self (archive footage)

Scott McVay
Self
Hella McVay
Self
Diana Reiss
Self
Gigi Coyle
Self
John Cunningham Lilly
Himself (archive footage)
Directors & Crew
Michael Almereyda
Director
Courtney Stephens
Director
Michael Almereyda
Writer
Courtney Stephens
Writer
Taylor Hess
Producer
Jesse Miller
Producer
Screenshots & Stills

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